Citation and License

Nanoscale Res Lett 2011, 6:48
doi:10.1007/s11671-010-9782-z

Published: 30 September 2010

Abstract

La-doped zirconia films, deposited by ALD at 300°C, were found to be amorphous with
dielectric constants (k-values) up to 19. A tetragonal or cubic phase was induced
by post-deposition annealing (PDA) at 900°C in both nitrogen and air. Higher k-values
(~32) were measured following PDA in air, but not after PDA in nitrogen. However,
a significant dielectric relaxation was observed in the air-annealed film, and this
is attributed to the formation of nano-crystallites. The relaxation behavior was modeled
using the Curie–von Schweidler (CS) and Havriliak–Negami (HN) relationships. The k-value
of the as-deposited films clearly shows a mixed CS and HN dependence on frequency.
The CS dependence vanished after annealing in air, while the HN dependence disappeared
after annealing in nitrogen.